Alisha+Ravi+-+Language+and+Prejudice

Language and Prejudice Prejudice is something that is often associated with race and culture, but there is so much prejudice that goes along with the language that one speaks, and writes. “The general public… ‘really buys into the idea that if someone is not spelling correctly, according to standard English rules, that means they are illiterate and not prepared for the job market and maybe even substandard intellectually’” (Przybys, 2008, para. 10). It is not only verbal language that is intertwined with prejudice, but words with loaded meanings that can be problematic. Language is a constantly surrounding us, and therefore we are constantly faced with judgments and assumptions based on our language.

Stubbs (1976) attributes the prejudice within language to linguistic stereotypes. “It is almost impossible, for example, to hear someone speak without immediately drawing conclusions, possibly very accurate about his social class background, level of education, and what part of the country he comes from” (Stubbs, 1976, p. 67). We make these automatic judgments based on language often unconsciously. Stubbs (1976) describes studies done with children in Edinburgh, and the judgments that were automatically made based on speech patterns. He attributes these prejudices in part to schools where there is essentially one language that is to be spoken. Students are often discouraged from speaking various dialects of the language that they may use at home.

It is not only dialect and spoken language that make room for prejudice, but it is also the choice of words and phrases that often cause rifts and prejudice among groups of people. Schulten (1999) writes about an 11th grade class who were assigned to read //The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn// without any prior discussion of the use of the word “nigger” in the novel.

As a result, says one African American student, no one was prepared for the power of the word in class. White students would nervously “snicker” or “turn around and stare” at the few African American students when the word was read aloud (Schulten, 1999, para. 2)

Despite the similarities between all of these students, the use of this one word in the classroom caused there to be a rift between the students. If this novel had been approached in a way that there was a dialogue surrounding the use of the word “nigger” in the novel maybe language could have been used to prevent the reaction of students in this classroom.

Language and prejudice and irrevocably intertwined. It is important for us to be aware of these assumptions that we make about language in order to avoid those assumptions developing into prejudice. Despite its paradoxical nature, it is important for us to create a dialogue using language, about the prejudice surrounding language and its effects on our lives and those of our students.